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Wallace Beery Net Worth

By: Ross Reilly | Updated: 2 years ago | Published: 3 years ago

Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American actor till April 15, 1949. He died due to heart attack. He has been known for his phenomenal portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill opposite Marie Dressler, as Long John Silver in Treasure Island, as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa!, and his titular role in The Champ, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beery appeared in some 250 movies in a 36-year career. He was the brother of actor Noah Beery, Sr. and uncle of actor Noah Beery, Jr. Till the date his net worth has been stated to be around $18 million dollars.

Beery was born in April 1, 1885 in Clay County, Missouri near Smithville. He was the youngest of three boys for Noah Webster Beery and Frances Margaret Fitzgerald. Wallace Beery attended the Chase School in Kansas City and took piano lessons as well, but showed little love for academic matters. He ran away from home twice, the first time returning after a short time, quitting school and working in the Kansas City train yards as an engine wiper. Beery ran away from home a second time at age 16, and joined the Ringling Brothers Circus as an assistant elephant trainer. He left two years later, after being clawed by a leopard.

It was then when his career officially started, Wallace Beery joined brother Noah in York City in 1904 in the course of finding work in comic opera as a baritone and began to appear on broadway as Summer stock theatre. His most notable early role came in 1907 when he starred in The Yankee Tourist to good reviews. In 1913, he moved to Chicago to work for Essanay Studios, cast as Sweedie, The Swedish Maid, a masculine character in drag. Later, he worked for the Essanay Studios location in Niles, California.

Beside that Beery's powerful basso voice and gruff, deliberate drawl soon became assets when Irving Thalberg hired him under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a character actor during the dawn of the sound film era.